By MYRON LOVE The first (and last) time that I interviewed Jonathan Strauss for The Jewish Post & News would have been shortly after the then teenager had founded Strauss Event Management. Today, almost 30 years later, the renamed Strauss Event and Association Management’s services are much in demand both in our Jewish and the wider community and the company is a player on the national scene.
And throughout, Strauss has remained strongly committed to downtown Winnipeg and our Jewish community.  Among the most recent assignments for the president-elect of the Winnipeg Board of Jewish Education/Gray Academy (where his two children go to school) was the production of the Jewish National Fund’s Negev Gala in June.
“It was great working with (JNF executive director) David (Greaves) and his team,” Strauss says.  “I really enjoyed Mayim Bialik’s presentation. I learned a lot from her.”
Strauss notes that his company has worked on previous Negev Galas, also managed events in our community for the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, and the Rady JCC.
In the general community, Strauss Event and Association Management helped organize the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce’s 150th anniversary celebrations last year at True North Square and continues to partner with Tourism Winnipeg.
The son of Arla and Martin Strauss launched his career part way through his Grade 11 year at the University of Winnipeg Collegiate.  “A few months earlier, he explains, “I had begun working part time for a company that was producing trade shows. The owners were experiencing financial difficulties.  How hard can it be to sell trade show space and advertising, I wondered?  I borrowed some money from my parents and paid the previous owners enough to cover their debts.
“Strauss Event and Association Management is a niche company,” Strauss continues. “Initially, we were focused on publishing and producing trade shows.  As a result of the trade shows, we began to receive requests to manage associations. Over the past 20 years, our revenue has changed and 90% of our revenues have come from managing associations.”
Strauss Management’s typical client is an organization without their own staff or is able to afford only a minimal office staff – perhaps one or two people, Strauss explains.  “With our team of specialists, we offer fractional management. We may provide an executive director, perhaps, a staff person to manage events or communications – or membership recruitment – basically any administrative support or association services that are required.”
In Manitoba, Strauss points out, Strauss Management has no competition.  “There are only a couple of dozen companies in Canada that offer the services that we do. The others are all in Toronto.”
Strauss Management has a staff of just 16 in Winnipeg and one in Toronto.  Surprisingly, the company also has four staff members in the small Central American country of El Salavdor. 
“Covid changed the way many people do business,” Strauss points out.  “Most of our work is done online now.  In Winnipeg, we offer our employees a hybrid work program that allows them to work from home two days a week.  Doing our business online has enabled us to access a more diverse labour pool with the right skill sets at a time when it is difficult to find more workers locally. Thus, we have been able to hire staff working from El Salvador.”
 Strauss is a firm believer in the potential for our downtown.  With the Convention Centre, the arena and the theatres, the downtown is a strong driver of our economy,” he says.  ”I am happy to see conventions, trade shows and gala evenings returning to the downtown post-Covid.”
From the beginning, Strauss management has been located downtown.  “It is important for our business to be close to the Convention Center and major hotels such as the Fort Garry and the Delta,” he points out.
Strauss is every bit as committed to our Jewish community as he is to the downtown.  He has offered his expertise to many leading Jewish organizations over the years – including have been on the board of the Jewish Child and Family Service – and is looking forward to his role at Gray Academy.
“I have been on the Board of Jewish Education for three years,” he notes.  “I bring to my new role a lot of governance experience with community boards and recruiting skills. 
“I believe that it is really important to provide our children with a strong Jewish education and positive learning experiences, not only through Gray Academy, but also through programs such as our Jewish summer camps and the March of the Living.”
He further comments that, since October 7, he has been working with a lot of people to help keep our Jewish community safe.  “As a parent, these past few months have been a real eye-opener,” he observes. “I have had the opportunity to work with our police officers and their willingness to go above and beyond to protect us.  I never thought that we would ever have to deal with a situation that we are facing now. As a parent and member of our Jewish community, I couldn’t be more confident that the Winnipeg Police Force will keep us safe and secure.”

By MYRON LOVE Brothers Bradley and Harlan Abells have followed similar paths in their lives.  They both attended Brock Corydon School’s Hebrew bilingual program. They are both relatively recent graduates of the Asper School of Business.  They are both pursuing careers working with numbers – Harlan notes that their zaidy, Chartered Accountant Saul Guttman, is their role model. both for Harlan – a CPA since July of last year who is currently working for People Corporation; and for Bradley – who earned his actuarial designation three years ago and works for Canada Life.  And they are each injecting youth into leadership roles in long-established community institutions.
Last month, Bradley assumed the role of vice-president of Jewish Child and Family Service at the JCFS Annual General Meeting.  (June was momentous for Bradley in another way as well, with his marriage to Kayla Rosen.)
“I was looking for a way to give back to the community,” says Bradley who, in his teen years was active in BBYO and served as a counsellor at Camp Massad.  “I was interested in the work social workers do, and it was suggested to me to approach JCFS.”
That was just two years ago.  Bradley’s introduction to the organization came as a member of both the Finance Committee and the Human Resources Committee. He later joined the Investment Committee.
“I didn’t know a lot of what the JCFS did before I began volunteering,” he says.  “I have been very impressed by the wide range of services that the JCFS offers our community and what a difference it makes in the lives of so many people.”
As reported elsewhere in this paper, JCFS’s new president is Elena Grinshteyn, whose family was itself a  client of the JCFS when Elena and her husband, Konstantin, along with their baby daughter, first came to Winnipeg from Israel nearly 20 years ago.   
Whereas Bradley Abells has chosen at this juncture to give back through the JCFS, younger brother Harlan is devoting his time to the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, where he was also elevated to vice-president.
“I had just started my working career in 2020 when Mark Kantor (the current JHCWC president) approached me about joining the board,’ notes Harlan who, in his younger days was a Massad camper and was later active in BBYO.   “The daughter of a friend of Mark’s is a good friend of mine.  The organization was in need of a treasurer and Mark reached out to me.
“I like what we do at JHCWC,” he continues.  “I am particularly impressed by the extensive archival collection and I appreciate the JHC’s Holocaust education mandate.  It is nice to be included in this important work.”
Both Harlan and Bradley believe that it is important to encourage more younger people to get involved in supporting our community’s institutions.  They are certainly good role models.  

By MYRON LOVE When Elena and Konstantin Grinshteyn arrived in Winnipeg in 2006 with their one-year-old daughter, they were warmly welcomed at the airport by a settlement worker from Jewish Child and Family Service, who assisted them in settling in. This past June, at the JCFS’s Annual General Meeting, Elena was appointed the new president of the JCFS board.
“I have experienced first-hand the good work that the JCFS does in  our community,” says the Red River College Polytech Senior Development Officer (responsible for student awards, and special initiatives), who joined the JCFS board in 2017.
Since Elena and her family settled in Winnipeg as a young couple with their one-year-old daughter, they have maintained a strong connection to the community by actively volunteering for the Grow Winnipeg program with the Jewish Federation, and later with JCFS. In their new country, Elena pursued a career in fundraising, working for the United Way of Winnipeg and Friends of Ralph Connor House before joining Red River College Polytechnic.
“The opportunity to work with visionary people who are shaping the community and creating a brighter future for the city is what makes being a Winnipegger special,” she says. Elena also sits on the board of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners (CAGP).
Elena’s vision for the next two years at JCFS is to help move JCFS forward, ensuring the organization reaches as many clients as possible and continues to grow. As an immigrant to Canada, she feels a profound commitment to maintaining a strong connection with new immigrant families and raising awareness about all the services JCFS offers.
On Thursday, July 11, independently of her new role as JCFS Board President, Elena spoke to a small gathering of Christian friends of Israel – which was organized by Pastor Rudy Fidel of Faith Temple and his wife and partner, Gina. The reason for Elena’s presentation was twofold – to speak of her experiences being in Israel on October 7 – when she was not far from the epicentre of the Hamas attacks. As well, Al Benarroch, JCFS Executive Director, was invited to raise awareness with the group about JCFS’s support services for Holocaust survivors. During his presentation Benarroch noted that there was an unexpected shortfall in year’s funding for the program this year.
Grinshteyn began her talk with some biographical information. The daughter of a Ukrainian father and Jewish mother living in the now embattled Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the family decided to make aliyah in 1991, when Grinshteyn was 13. The family settled in Ashkelon in southern Israel.
Grinshteyn did her two years of service in the IDF, after which she earned a degree in Economics and Computer Science from Bar Ilan University.
“Israel is a multifaceted country – you hear many different languages on the street – and where people are generally happy despite the constant threat of terrorism and war,” she observed.
It was acts of terrorism – in particular, the bombing of the Dolphinarium Discotheque in Tel Aviv on June 1, 2001, that persuaded Elena and Konstantin to leave Israel. “It was a hard decision,” Elena recalls, “but we wanted to offer our kids a home where they would be safe.” The couple has two daughters – 19 and 13 years old.”
At the beginning of October, the Grinshteyn family returned to Israel to spend Sukkot with their extended family. “We enjoyed an amazing six days,” she told her audience. “We were surrounded by our loving family in Ashdod and Ashkelon.”
“Then, in the early hours of October 7, we heard rockets and the sirens going off ,“ she recounts. “Fortunately, my mother-in-law had a bomb shelter in her apartment building. Although everyone said we would be okay, the sounds of the rockets were terrifying.” 
“By 9:00 A.M., we realized that a full-scale invasion was taking place.”
“By 10:30 am, over 2,000 missiles had already been fired into southern Israel.”
She proceeded to show slides of some of the destruction in Ashdod.
Elena and Konstantin immediately began trying to make plans to return home to Canada, but most flights were cancelled. They were able to get a flight to Greece on October 11 and were able to finally return to Canada five days later.
As was noted, the second part of the evening’s presentation for Christian friends of Israe saw Al Benarroch, JCFS’s Executive Director, speaking about the needs of local Holocaust survivors and the reductions in funding for the program at JCFS that supports them.
“This year, we are facing a $40,000 deficit,” he reported. Pastor Rudy Fidel and his congregants have pledged their own efforts to help raise money toward making up that deficit. 
After WWII, Benarroch explained, the German government slowly accepted responsibility for what the Nazi Regime unleashed on the Jewish people and entered into negotiations to pay financial compensation to survivors. The negotiations (which continue to this day) and funding channels through the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (also known as the “Claims Conference”), a nonprofit organization with offices in New York, Israel, and Germany. Over the decades, Germany has paid out many billions of dollars to help Holocaust survivors all over the world.
“The problem here,” Benarroch pointed out, “ is that the number of Holocaust survivors in Winnipeg served by JCFS now stands at 91 (an estimated 20-25 additional survivors have not sought services from JCFS). We have assisted as many as 160 over the years. (Some 1,050 or so survivors originally settled in Winnipeg after the war). JCFS assists them with filling out the various forms for reparations, which can be an emotionally daunting task for survivors. We also assist with emergency financial assistance for those most in need, and private homecare services to top up the few hours that the public healthcare system may provide. Funding from the Claims Conference covers all of this, including funds to employ two social workers to work with the survivors. Until recently, negotiations with the German government allowed for funding in a ratio of one social worker for every 50 Holocaust survivor clients. As a result of negotiations, and to establish more consistency worldwide, this ratio has now been changed to one worker for every 70 clients.
“JCFS currently receives and spends almost $900,000 a year total for the services to Holocaust survivors in our community”, Benarroch reported. “The funds allocated to financial assistance and homecare remain the same. However, the funds to cover the salaries of those 2 social workers at the new ratio of 1:70 cases is resulting in a deficit of $40,000.
“On principle, JCFS will not reduce the amount of social work time devoted to Holocaust survivors,” said Benarroch. “They deserve so much more than we already give them, and we will find a way to keep funding those positions.” 
He singled out special praise for JCFS social worker, Adeena Lungen, herself the daughter of Holocaust survivors, who has been working with the survivor community for the past 20 years.
“Adeena’s dedication is remarkable. She is so committed and, as an example, she makes every effort to attend the funeral of any local Holocaust survivor who passes away,” Benarroch added. “It is estimated that in another 10-12 years, the last remaining Holocaust survivor in the world will pass away. What then will be their legacy?”
Referring to Elena Grinshteyn’s account of terrorism in Israel, Benarroch recounted his own parents’ narrow escape once – in Jerusalem. In the 1990s, Shlomo and Mary Benarroch were visiting in Jerusalem. They were shopping for a tallis – the kind with the rainbow stripes, for a younger Al Benarroch – before doing their Friday afternoon pre-Shabbat shopping at the nearby Machane Yehuda Market. They were delayed in that particular Judaica store and ,while waiting, a double suicide bombing occurred in the market.
“It was a miracle,” Benarroch said to the church group. “There is no other way to explain it. Israel is a special place. It is a land where miracles happen every day, and our very survival itself is a miracle. It is through the grace of God that Israel will continue to overcome hardships and survive.”